Here at least in Bob Dole is a presidential candidate who is exhorting the free rights of this country's citizens. Yet within the very pages of the magazine reporting the overwhelming cry of outrage by your readers are two articles that take well-aimed pot-shots at a man who has not only served his country during a time of war, but who, for all intents and purposes, is proposing legislation that begins to return this country's course back to its citizens.

You can't have it both ways. Either you stand with Bob Dole and vote for him, or you allow, by default, the further anti-constitutional actions of Clinton and his crowd.

Bruce W. Bjorkman

Bruce:Writes!

Salem, Ore.

After reading your article "No brotherly love in this radio market" in the Aug. 12 issue, I couldn't help smiling with a vengeance. I have been following the CBS/Westinghouse/Infinity consolidation in the trades for months, and as a radio professional I cannot adequately express my support for the mergers and acquisitions that are in progress today.

Certainly Mr. [Mel] Karmazin [head of Infinity] has selfish motives in mind; after all, he is a businessman. But the larger issue of radio viability is also at stake here.

Media buyers have been raping radio stations over rates for years, claiming that radio is not a viable form of advertising since it is so fragmented. Unfortunately, this is a misperception that radio feeds, directly from the hand of a beast called "Added Value." Agencies and media buyers can't get enough of it.

However, with big and small businesses wanting to spend their advertising dollars more efficiently by targeting their demographics more effectively, radio should be their first stop. No other medium targets specific demos more pragmatically than radio. That is the foundation radio is built upon, and everyone seems to understand its value except media buyers.

Even if a group owner were to corner the market on a specific demographic, and radio rates were to double or triple, they would still be cheaper than TV or print ads, both locally and nationally.

I applaud Mr. Karmazin and other group owners for their efforts. Their actions, whether consciously or unconsciously, are going to benefit the radio industry as a whole and finally force media buyers and agencies to treat the industry with the respect it deserves.

Brendan J. Hurley

White Plains, N.Y.

In the Aug. 19 special report on "100 Leading Media Companies," Advertising Age ranks media enterprises by U.S. revenue alone. Advertising Age, as the preeminent publication for the marketing industry, should be in step with, if not ahead of, a readership that is more concerned with marketing on a global scale.

Media companies are important partners in this global marketing effort. To provide a ranking of these companies based solely on U.S. revenues is to miss an opportunity to convey their true potential value to your audience.

In our own category-hardly unique in this respect-nearly 60% of the world's spending on information technology happens outside the U.S. A technology marketer evaluating media company offerings needs to understand how well each company reaches his customers and prospects not only in the U.S. but internationally as well.

Next year, please reconsider your decision to rank companies by U.S. revenue.

Chris McAndrews

VP-marketing

International Data Group

Boston

Re your article on Planet Out and its ambition to deliver a gay and lesbian online audience to advertisers (AA, Sept. 9): As the saying goes, "been there, done that."

Out.com, the Web service of Out magazine, already has proven itself an effective advertising medium for the likes of Nynex, Clairol and Apple Computers, thanks to a daily audience of some 20,000 unique visitors.

Combined with Out magazine's audience of 400,000 affluent, educated and motivated gay and lesbian consumers (based on an ABC-audited circulation of 125,622 and MRI-estimated readership of 3.2 per copy), Out.com is a tough act to follow. But we wish Planet Out well, knowing that imitation is, as always, the sincerest form of flattery.